1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a practice time calculating apparatus, a practice time calculating method, and a computer readable recording medium, which can calculate a practice time more precisely that a user requires to improve his/her playing technique to reach a target level at playing technique.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional technique is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-184757, Paragraphs [0097] to [0110], FIG. 17 and FIG. 18, in which technique, when a user plays a previously prepared practice piece on a keyboard instrument or one of electronic musical instruments, such as electronic pianos and/or electronic keyboard instruments, a current progressing level of the user's playing technique is judged on every practice piece based on data (performance data) representing contents of performance performed every time the user has tried his/her practice, and such progressing level is displayed to the user.
Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-184757 discloses a technique, which calculates a practice time based on the temporal variation in the progressing level judged with respect to the user's past practices, that is, calculates a practice time (remaining practice time) that the user requires to improve his/her playing technique to reach a target level at playing technique.
But when the remaining practice time is calculated based on the temporal variation in progressing level judged on the past practices, the following disadvantages are invited. That is, the progressing rate of the playing technique is not always constant. For example, the progressing rate suddenly increases from a time. In this case, the recent progressing level is not affected on the calculation of the remaining practice time, and as a result, the calculated remaining practice time will be longer than the practice time that will be required actually.
Off course, the above disadvantage will be avoided, if the remaining practice time is calculated based on the progressing level in the recent time. But in such case, another disadvantage will be encountered. For instance, even if the user's progressing level of the playing technique is substantially the same as ever, the user's progressing level will increase, when the user plays a portion of a practice piece of a relatively lower degree of difficulty in the recent time. On the contrary, the user's progressing level will decrease, when the user plays a portion of a relatively higher degree of difficulty. Therefore, there will be another problem that a large variation is caused in the calculated practice time due to the degree of difficulty of the practice piece that the user plays.
The present invention has been made to solve these problems involved in the conventional technique, and provides a practice time calculating apparatus, a practice time calculating method, and a computer readable recording medium, which can calculate a practice time more precisely that the user requires to improve his/her playing technique to reach the target level at playing technique.